CHICAGO — The Nets hit the midway point of their season in style — with Kenny Atkinson essentially taking his hands off the wheel and watching his team on autopilot cruise to a 117-100 rout of the Bulls before 19,265 at United Center.
The Nets (20-21) have their highest win total at the midway point of a season since 2012-13. They are seventh in the East thanks to a 12-3 run following their Dec. 6 players-only film session, the second-best record in the NBA since that epiphany.
“I think we’ve reached — not the apex — but we’re getting close to reaching the principles and the ideal of the type of basketball we want to play,” Atkinson said. “That takes time. We’ve been at it a long time myself, almost three seasons. I sat back in my seat because it was running by itself, and they knew what to do and they were talking. That’s the ideal scenario for a coach.”
To be more precise, the players were running it, with D’Angelo Russell leading it.
Russell had a game-high 28 points and sparked the 24-12 run that broke a 55-all halftime tie and broke the Bulls’ backs. The Nets used a three-guard group at times with good returns, with Shabazz Napier adding 18 points and Spencer Dinwiddie seven points and five assists.
“We’ve been playing at a good level,” Russell said. “Just keep building on it, taking care of what we’re supposed to take care of and give ourselves a chance. … Our confidence is high. I don’t think anybody can tell us anything else.
Jarrett AllenAP“That’s a heck of a compliment [from Atkinson], especially when you’ve got three guards out there. Coach calls them the quarterbacks, and we consider ourselves the best three quarterbacks in the NFL. We feel like we all can drive that. For him to sit back and give us that leash to do that, everybody’s trying to take advantage of it. And we’re winning, so it’s just keeping that trust.”
They kept it Sunday.
Zach LaVine (team-high 27 points) kept the Bulls in it in the first half. But the Nets won it after the intermission with Russell, Jarrett Allen (19 points, six rebounds, two blocks) and defense the Chicago Bears would have loved.
LaVine had 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the first half, giving Joe Harris fits. But the Nets switched Dinwiddie on him and held him to eight in the second.
And after allowing too many easy post-ups — failing to help off the Bulls’ non-shooters — the Nets started doubling and trapping in the post. They rarely see a team without the personnel to punish them from that. But Chicago (10-30) is that team, outscored 29-18 in the fourth quarter and held to 1-of-6 from deep.
“We just came out aggressive, did it on the defensive end,” said DeMarre Carroll, who had 20 points. “Then we started knocking down shots. We put those things together, we’re a hard ballclub to beat.“D’Angelo is just taking it to a whole other level. He’s getting everybody involved, he’s scoring the ball when he needs to. He’s got a complete game right now. That’s what we need from him in order to go far and go deep like we want to.”
Brooklyn hit 8-of-10 shots and 4-of-4 from 3-point range in opening the second half with that 24-12 run. Allen had eight points in that surge, and Russell had 11, including back-to-back 3s to make it 79-67.
And when they saw Lauri Markkanen cut the lead to 92-85 early in the fourth, they answered with eight unanswered points. Napier’s 3 made it 100-85, and they padded it to as many as 19.
“We didn’t panic,” Atkinson said. “It’s the confidence when it’s a close game, and it’s on the road, where we can close it out. That’s what our guys did.”
